Caught my roommate scrubbing dishes like crazy before loading the dishwasher

Last Tuesday I walked into the kitchen and saw my roommate scrubbing a plate with a sponge for a solid 2 minutes before putting it in the dishwasher. I asked her why she even bothers with the machine if she's gonna clean them by hand first. She said her mom always did it that way. That got me thinking about how I used to do the same thing back in college until a repair guy told me I was actually ruining the detergent's job. Now I just scrape off the big chunks and let the machine handle the rest. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized you were basically doubling your dish time for no reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

juliawalker1mo ago

My old dishwasher's manual actually said you have to rinse first or the filter clogs up in 3 months.

-1

hugow301mo ago

Oh man, that's wild! I actually read something pretty similar recently - some appliance repair blog was saying that a lot of the newer dishwashers are actually designed to handle food scraps now, but the old models definitely needed rinsing. You're probably right about the manual being a good guide for your specific machine, @juliawalker, because they all seem to be built a little differently (my neighbor's Bosch is way pickier than my old Kenmore ever was). I think a lot of people just assume you can skip rinsing and then wonder why their dishes come out gritty after a few months. The filter thing is real too, I've seen photos of those things clogged up with rice and spinach and it's nasty. So yeah, if the manual says rinse, definitely rinse is my take.